Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn is a professor of history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Her books include Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living; Race Experts: How Racial Etiquette, Sensitivity Training; and New Age Therapy Hijacked the Civil Rights Revolution.
Costică Brădățan’s argument in praise of failure rests on its ability to make us humble.
Fantasies of freeing ourselves of the baggage of the past run aground on the fact that humans are history-bearing animals.
While some debate whether the self is real at all, human persons must make their way in the world, generally without strong institutional supports to guide or sustain them.
The available terms for making better sense of the human predicament are plentiful, but most are currently buried beneath layers of exhausted soil.